多伦多士嘉堡爱静阁选区(Scarborough-Agincourt)的市议员狄格兰(Mike Del Grande)接受媒体采访时表示，“白人”正在逐渐从其选区迁移出去，狄格兰的言论一石激起千层浪，立即引起极大反弹。
部分市议员及族裔关系专家指出，狄格兰的言论招致不和，是无法接受的。
据星报通讯社报道，狄格兰于本周接受“士嘉堡镜报”(Scarborough Mirror)记者采访时表示，许多白种人正在迁离该地区。
狄格兰说，其实他的言论只是反映其选区人口结构变化的“现实”而已。
不过，他对其言论经传媒断章取义感到十分不满。
狄格兰周五接受记者采访时指出，传媒将其所描绘的并非事实，对此他极为不快。
感到被人出卖，为此气恼，愤怒，难以控制情绪。
然而，同僚对这名新出炉的议员并不同情。
来自湖滨-东约克(Beaches-East York)选区的市议员戴维丝(Janet Davis)指出，狄格兰的言论带有很浓的种族主义味道，任何当选议员都是无法接受的。
她说，应当为城市的多样化、丰富多采及活力感到庆幸。
城市族裔关系联盟(Urban Alliance on Race Relations)前会长谭润棣(Tam Goossen)对狄格兰的言论“十分忧虑”，并认为“制造分裂”。
狄格兰的言论还不止于此，他进一步说，在其选区，来自香港及中国大陆的华人相互冲突。
谭润棣说，这类言论使人群相互对立，作为一名议员不应当这样。
多伦多种族平等问题专责小组负责人、市议员米赫域(Joe Mihevc)指出，狄格兰的言论“极不恰当”。
他指出，任何移民群体都是多伦多的宝贵资产，认为白人撤离，中国人进入，这类言论具有种族主义性质。
米赫域指出，狄格兰也许需要增长知识，需要在处理种族平等问题方面接受培训。
狄格兰于2003年11月首次当选市议员。
他固执地说，他支持文化多样化、平等对待每个人，传媒的报道断章取义，简直是“狗屎”。
“士嘉堡镜报”记者倪克尔(David Nickle)周五表示，该报的报道准确。
狄格兰周五重申，其选区的白人人口正在减少。
他说，也许“白人”不是政治准确的用词，但实际情况是，只要看一下人口统计数字便会发现，该选区的长期居民正在向外迁移，这些人主要是英国后裔。
他进一步指出，当他于1983年迁进该区时，人口的结构基本上是50%对50%的混合，现在街上的白人屈指可数。
这是不容否认的现实。
该区白种人纷纷迁往Stouffville、Woodbridge或任何其他地方。
选区的人口确实发生了变化，现在55%为中国人，包括来自香港及中国大陆的华人。
狄格兰辩说，为了适应人口结构的变化，他非常尽力，例如，于夏天作了非正式的人口分布调查，在新闻简报中使用汉语，帮助居民更快融入主流社会。
对于选区人口结构的变化不可以视而不见，例如现在的唐人街过去曾经是犹太社区。
不能因为其表达方式不当而对其穷追猛打。
以下为相关新闻英文原文
____________________________
Councillor’s comments cause concern
Ward 39’s Mike Del Grande worries about ‘white people’ leaving community
DAVID NICKLE More from this author
Dec. 29, 2004
Ward 39 Councillor Mike Del Grande (Scarborough-Agincourt) worries that “white people” are leaving his northwest Scarborough ward, and maintains a list of suspected rooming houses, grow houses and bylaw violations in the form of a ward-wide “census” of single family homes.
“What’s happening here is a lot of the white people are moving out,” said Del Grande, during a recent tour of his ward with a Mirror reporter. Del Grande agreed to the tour after raising concerns about the assessment he’d received in The Mirror’s recent city council report card. He made the comment outside one suspected marijuana grow house after the reporter noted the large suburban home had a Neighbourhood Watch sign in its front window.
During the two-hour tour, the councillor, elected for the first time in 2003, visited sites where he’d had an impact in 2003, focusing on community benefits received from developers, work that he’d done to improve local parks, and work he’d done to root out marijuana grow operations in suburban houses.
Del Grande’s ward includes a large Chinese-Canadian population (43.3 per cent of the ward is of Chinese origin, according to 2000 census data posted on the City of Toronto’s website).
When asked a short time later to explain his apparent perception that there is a race relations problem in his ward, Del Grande said: “There’s two types of Chinese in this neighbourhood. There’s the Hong Kong Chinese and there’s the mainland Chinese and the Hong Kong Chinese are having trouble with the mainland Chinese. So it’s not even white and Chinese. It’s Chinese and Chinese. So there’s a tension and Hong Kong Chinese are moving out. That’s the irony here.”
And he concluded:
“But most people don’t care what’s next door, Jamaican, Filipino, as long as they maintain their property…and they don’t cause a lot of problems and have respect for each other, that’s the key point,” he said.
Dr. Ming-Tat Cheung, chair of the Chinese Cultural Centre, said he was “very disappointed” with Del Grande’s comments.
“I think he has to learn the multicultural makeup of this community. He has to try to understand as a leader of the community he should try to resolve the problem and not incite the problem – make more problems,” said Cheung.
“But saying that people who are white are moving out and Chinese people are moving in – I wouldn’t want to use the word racism, but it’s shortsighted to think that only the white people are Canadians and everybody else is an outsider,” he added. “That’s something that’s been happening in the past. It’s not well received.”
Cheung also disagreed with Del Grande’s assertion that Chinese-Canadians from mainland China have problems with those from Hong Kong, or vice versa.
“I think there is some cultural background differences between people from Hong Kong and China, but I think their goals are the same – trying to have a good life in Canada – and I think there might be some disagreements but overall I think Hong Kong people and Chinese people are working well together,” he said.
On issues of property standards, Del Grande revealed that he had over the summer paid three summer students to observe every single family house in the ward. He showed the reporter the resulting chart that he said he carries with him, showing addresses and a checklist of suspected problems: overgrown grass, trees that need trimming, illegally-widened driveways and homes that showed signs of being illegal rooming houses or grow houses.
When asked if his constituents might not be disturbed at having their homes observed so closely, Del Grande responded: “If somebody calls to complain about their neighbour, I say…by the way, you got a widened driveway which is illegal as well…so you’re breaking the law as much as the other guy. You want to proceed? I’ll proceed.”
Del Grande is, however, proactive on many property standards issues. He said he travels around his ward with a pair of binoculars and a digital camera, monitoring suspected illegal grow houses and also keeping an eye on houses that he suspects are illegal rooming houses.
“What I do is I get a camera and a pair of binoculars…I just literally drive by continually,” he said.
Del Grande has also begun a much-publicized process of putting a sign up on the lawns of grow houses once the police have busted them. He dismissed concerns that doing so affects property values of the surrounding homes.
“The issue is we don’t put them up forever – just for two to five days, saying we got rid of this,” he said.
Del Grande also raised concerns that too many of the homes in the ward are tenant-occupied rather than owner-occupied. He said that his goal for the community is to have more homeowners move in.
“What I want at the end of the day is I want people to move into the neighbourhood and not move out of the neighbourhood,” he said. “I think that tells the story…There are a lot of vacant homes. This area seems to be predominantly lots of absentee landlords, lots of rentals.”
